St. Louis named one of 2016’s ‘Best Sports Cities’ in the US

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Talk show host Andy Cohen raises his fist as he prepares to throw a ceremonial first pitch before the Arizona Diamondbacks-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on May 20, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

St. Louis named one of 2016’s ‘Best Sports Cities’ in the US

Talk show host Andy Cohen raises his fist as he prepares to throw a ceremonial first pitch before the Arizona Diamondbacks-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on May 20, 2016. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

Wallethub compared 423 small to large cities across more than 50 key metrics. The data set ranges from “performance level of the city’s team(s)” to “average ticket price per game.”

St. Louis takes the 9th spot in the list of big cities. But, the it also ranks in the top ten for cities for hockey and baseball. Fans in St. Louis must be very enthusiastic. They beat out other cities with basketball, soccer and football teams.

WalletHub has St. Louis ranking very low in metrics for football fans. That isn’t surprising with the Ram’s departure for Los Angeles last year. The scores for soccer and basketball are much higher.

Why is there no discussion of a NBA team expanding to St. Louis? This survey has the Mound City with fairly high “Basketball Rank.” This is with virtually no discussion of the professional basketball coming to town or any local teams located near St. Louis.

Best Large Sports Cities:

New York, NY

Boston, MA

Pittsburgh, PA

Los Angeles, CA

Chicago, IL

Philadelphia, PA

Washington, DC

Detroit, MI

St. Louis, MO

Denver, CO

Several interesting findings from WalletHub:

Stillwater, Okla., has one of the highest minimum season-ticket prices for a college football (FBS and FCS) game, $400, which is 16 times higher than in East Lansing, Mich., the city with the lowest, $25.

New York has the highest average ticket price for an NBA game, $97.77, which is 3.2 times higher than in New Orleans, the city with the lowest, $30.20.

NHL fans in Pittsburgh are 27 times friendlier and more engaged than their New York counterparts.

Dallas has the highest NFL popularity-index rank, whereas Jacksonville, Fla., has the lowest.

Boston has the highest average MLB season-ticket price, $54.79, which is three times higher than in Phoenix, the city with the lowest, $18.53.

San Jose, Calif., has the highest attendance rate for MLS games, which is 2.3 times higher than in Orlando, Fla., the city with the lowest.